The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-06-01
A True Story of the War.


!, ried young man, to whdm she had long
been engaged. Their unbn was a hap
py one, and as both had been reared in
the vicinity and were beloved and re-
spected by all, they received the kindest
benisons of all who knew them.
But the war was raging around them,
and their locality was alternately occu-
pied by each of the contending armies.
A draft was about to be made, and the
young husband, a month after his mar
riage, concluded to take advantage of the
Governments liberal offers and enlist
rather than run the risk of being forced
into the ranks without any emolument
save the fneagre pay of a private. So he
voluntarily enlisted and became private
in the Union army
His courage and intelligence soon gain
ed the respect of his officers and fellow
men, and in several hard-fought battles
he distinguished himselfto such an ex-
tent that his name was forwarded to the
department headquarters in St Louis, and
in a short time returned in second lieu
tenants commission. The regiment was
stationed i'll northern Arkansas and at
this opportune moment, when he was so
near to all he held dear Efor son was
born to him in his absence he could not
resist the temptation TO obtain short
leave of absence to visit his wife and
child.
The boon was easily obtained, and with
his commission in his pocket, he mount
ed his horse and started for home. At
length the welI-remeinlered landmarks
came to view.
He was close to home.
A few hundred yards of the leafy forest
and he could see the smoke from the cot
that contained his treasures.
How he would surprise theml
How his wife would cry forjoy,
How his bright-eyed babe would.
Haltw came fierce order in stento-
rian tones, from the bush that surround
ed the road. Ere he could rein in his
horse in obedience to the dread summons
he was, as if by magic, surrounded by
twenty or thirty fierce and heavily armed
men, whom his practiced eye told him
were the most uDrelenting foes that the
uniform he wore ever had. His heart
sank within him, brave as he was, for he
knew there was no mercy in the heart Of
a bushwhacker, for such they were.
A few questions were put to him by the
leader of the band, but they were more
for FORMS sake than ANYTHING else His
uniform was a mute answer for all they
wished to know, while from his pockets,
which were rapidly turned inside out,
1 was the commission drawn forth which
made them more eager for his blood
The leader Of the band was man near
his own age land to him he appealed AMI
demanded that he be treated as 4 prison
er of war. His request was treated with
derision, and a moment more his legs
were pinioned, and an ominous rope with
moose at its end dangled from the limb
of an adjacent tree again he appealed
TO his inhuman captors, and implored
them TO let him see his wife and child
but for moment before he died. But
even as he supplicated the leader put the
fatal loop around his neck, gave a signal
with his hand, and the unfortunate man
was swung off into eternity with a prayer
for the widowed wife and orphan child
apon his lips.
The next day the corpse was discover
ed swayiug in the wind by passing sol
dier who, stopping at the next house.
(which happened to be the home of the
officer told the woman that there was a
man hanging dead short distance down
the road, and it was better, perhaps, he
should receive Christian burial This
was not unIrequent news in that locality,
and nearly all the men being in the army
the sad work of interring the dead and
caring for the wounded depended upon
the lone women. And faithfully was it
done, too for they knew not but their
own ones were being cared for in
similar manner far off in some distant
State
So the woman procured help of others
other sex who lived in the neighborhood
and together they proceededon their sad
mission. As they approached the corpse
strange forboding passed through the
mind of the woman who led them, for
there was something familiar in the sus-
pended form, even in the midst of its un-
natural surroundings. The blood rushed
back to her heart as she neared it, Sud
denly the breeze swayed it around, and
-oh, horror. in its distorted features she
beheld the lineaments of the father of
her child, and she swooned away in
dead faint at the feet of him who in life
was her all.
Ten years had passed. And though
time had healed the wounds in her heart
the love of hi who had been the hus-
band of her youth WAS still faithful. Her
child had become a youth and needed
the stern, restraining hand and expert
enced counsel of "a father She. too, a
weak, lone woman, WAS tired of fighting
the battle of life and yielded TO the sup
plications OF man who bore a good
character. They were married and their
lives blended in happy, even tenor of
connubial existence. He treated her
kindly and affectionately, was a father to
her son, and an honest, industrious bread
winner for them all. She loved and re-
spected him, and her future seemed full
recompense for the weary past
One day not long sinee-and it was AN
evil day--an old acquaintance visited
him. They had in the years agone been
warm friends, for they had fought togeth-
er under the banners of the sunny South
and oft had shared the same blanket as
partisans--yes, guerrillas, bushwhackers,
ii you like.
Right glad they were to meet, and the
husband received him cordially for old !
times sake, and the wife made him wei
come for the sake of her husband One
night, as they sat around the ruddy |
hearth after the evening meal, the two
men talked of the stirring scenes through
which they had passed, and, as old